Privacy Issues with Relay Calls

Steinhauer

Steinhauer

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I have a question for those out there that may have experienced this. Has anyone ever "pretended" to be you and called someone via relay? I had this happen to me several years ago when someone was attempting to stalk me. That individual was calling my employer and asking what my schedule was - the whole time - pretending to be me.

On the flip side to that, I have also used relay to call someone and the person on the other line would not believe that it was actually me calling - they got confused when they heard the interpreter's voice.

I have also been thinking about the privacy laws in regards to sensitive information being transmitted via telecommunications. Suppose you are trying to purchase a vehicle, and the finance officer says for you to call them. Then, when you call using relay, they refuse to speak to you since they are not speaking "directly" to you.... has anyone else experienced this?

What kinds of suggestions would you have to alleviate these types of situations?
 
Sorry to hear this, Steinhauer. I have same situation as yours. 5 years ago, the operator said she knows me and she asked me a lot of personal questions. I asked her who are you? Guess what? She hung up on me. I took her ID and reported it to the relay service company immediately. They took my action. The supervisor told me that they fired her on the spot and that they make sure that it will never happens again in the future.
 
The above seems a "bit strange" as from my experience of 15 years using my TTY VCO. You hear my voice and supposed whoever you call recognizes YOUR VOICE.
To me the RELAY service ONLY relays the other parties voice by keying their response.

This is from my use here in Ontario using 711. The relay operators have NEVER asked any personal questions-so far. Is it different in other countries?

Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
drphil said:
The above seems a "bit strange" as from my experience of 15 years using my TTY VCO. You hear my voice and supposed whoever you call recognizes YOUR VOICE.
To me the RELAY service ONLY relays the other parties voice by keying their response.

This is from my use here in Ontario using 711. The relay operators have NEVER asked any personal questions-so far. Is it different in other countries?
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You're comparing apples to oranges.

Video relay and TTY relay are not the same thing.

With video relay, the deaf caller signs to an interpreter. The interpreter speaks to the hearing person that is being called. The hearing person hears the interpreter's voice.

Then, the hearing person speaks the reply to the interpreter. The interpreter signs the reply back to the deaf caller.

The deaf caller and hearing caller never hear or see each other. They only hear or see the interpreter.

If the deaf caller uses VCO in conjunction with video relay, then yes, the hearing caller could hear the deaf caller's voice. But that's not the situation that's being described.

Also, for deaf callers who use TTY relay without VCO, there is no way a hearing caller would hear the deaf caller's voice. Therefore, someone else could fake a TTY call since no one hears nor sees the deaf caller.

Relay interpreters/operators themselves are never supposed to ask anyone any personal questions on either side of the call, regardless of the country.
 
I am curious if having a picture of the person that the VRS phone is registered to would help the operator identify if the caller is who they say they are.
 
Steinhauer said:
I am curious if having a picture of the person that the VRS phone is registered to would help the operator identify if the caller is who they say they are.
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Are you sending your picture to the VRS so they can keep it on file?
 
Glenn said:
Are you sending your picture to the VRS so they can keep it on file?
Click to expand...

I would be willing to have my picture as a pop up on the screen when making a VRS call - just so the operator can confirm the caller is me. It is the next best thing that I can think of in regards to voice recognition. However, the person on the other end would have no way of knowing it is really me - the operator would though.
 
I don't think it is the job of the VRS to verify your identity.

I will ask a couple of my friends who work at a VRS and see what they think.
 
Steinhauer said:
I would be willing to have my picture as a pop up on the screen when making a VRS call - just so the operator can confirm the caller is me. It is the next best thing that I can think of in regards to voice recognition. However, the person on the other end would have no way of knowing it is really me - the operator would though.
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Couldn't anyone use your photo and pretence they're you? My audiologist wanted me to use relay calls and I refuse to as I am concerned about my privacy.
 
When you call a bank to inquire about your account, they ask you questions to verify your identity.

I think it is up to the parties in the call to verify identities. The VRS operator is just a communications person.
 
Glenn said:
When you call a bank to inquire about your account, they ask you questions to verify your identity.

I think it is up to the parties in the call to verify identities. The VRS operator is just a communications person.
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Steinhauer said someone pretended to be her and that is really freaky! How does an operator know they're really talking the right person? I would think you would not always get the same operator every time. I was thinking of getting phone that I could 'read' what the person it saying to me but I can't get use the the idea of having a 'third person' listening to my calls!
 
Reba: you could be correct. I read relay as using voice not video relay-which I don't have, Though I have text on my Ultra Tec1140. I never use it. I am aware the relay service can speak for you if you use text.

I have used the Relay service over 10 years to transfer funds from one bank-RBC to another-ING DIRECT and they ask a raft of personal question re my account.-which I can easily answer. I never worry about the Relay operator-they are in Kitchener and I live in Toronto. The safety feature-ING will ONLY transfer back to my main account which is unknown to anyone else.
So far so good!

Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
If worried about personal details or bank details, maybe better to go there in person and that way both know each other is real.

I hope UK will get video relay service in future cos we don't have any.
 
I would think registering your videophone would alleviate some of the privacy issues - however, it doesn't.

I was reading through this snopes forum and ... well, all I can say is some sort of measures need to be made to protect the privacy of VRS callers:

snopes.com: Nigerian using Deaf Relay to scam people


My wife and I are co-owners of an embroidery/cresting shop and we were recently contacted by a supposed church minister via deaf relay. He was looking to by 2000 large & extra large t-shirts for an orphan relief program and wanted to purchase them with a credit card.
When we asked for address information we were told that the shirts were to be picked up by his delivery service. He gave us two card numbers and when we checked them out, the companies said that they were legitimate as far as they could tell. Somethng didn't ring true, so I went on line and got a standard form for phone-in credit card sales. We sent it to him and asked that he fill it out including phone number and address. We never heard back from him.
The credit card companies contacted us later and told us that the card holder named on the cards had no knowledge of the cards existence and had we put the order through we would have been reponsible for the whole amount, about $10,000.
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I want to know which orphanage has 200 large and extra large kids in it. :eek:
 
Glenn said:
How does that relate to "privacy"? That story relates to security.
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From the article posted:

I'm hearing impaired.

I got an e-mail from a friend asking me if I called her via Deaf Relay asking her for some money or if I knew anybody who is deaf making these kind of phone calls and I told her that it wasn't me and I haven't heard anything about this kind of particular issue.

Well, my mother called me and asked me if I called her via relay. I told her "No" because I now have a cochlear implant and can understand her over the phone. She said that it was really weird because they kept asking for money to help a deaf charity or something like that so I did some poking around and found this:
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When someone is making relay calls pretending to be you, that is a security concern, yes, it is also a privacy concern. That same person pretending to be you, can get your private information.

I am just trying to brainstorm on how to make VRS more difficult for these scammers to use. I think registering your phone would be one way - but how many times do you use your friend's VRS to make calls (when you are visiting?) Not asking you specifically, just asking generally to anyone reading this.

How could someone make their VRS calls completely private? How could a VRS call be more transparent to hearing callers (so a hearing person does not confuse ANY relay call as being from their son, daughter, husband, etc. when it is actually from someone else?)
 
Registering doesn't provide equal access because hearies don't register. It's up to the people making and receiving the call to ensure privacy and security, and not the relay.
 
Glenn said:
Registering doesn't provide equal access because hearies don't register. It's up to the people making and receiving the call to ensure privacy and security, and not the relay.
Click to expand...

By registering I meant having a phone number attached to a person's name - much like what can be found in a phone book. Just to give an idea .... I, for one, never bother to answer an unlisted number or any unfamiliar number. I have been spammed numerous times via VRS by the infamous Nigerian Scammers.

I would like my name and number to appear on a person's caller ID so they could verify it is actually me calling and NOT just a random relay call from anyone. I would think that this would cut down on confusion quite a bit.

Maybe its a futile effort, I don't know (??)
 
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